Thing #2: Mobile Device tips can be hard to find

I thought that this would be a super-easy Thing to complete.  After all, there is a list of helpful videos and sites and I have really common phone type (an HTC One Android phone).  Ahhhh, but how wrong I was....on several levels.

First things first (pun totally intended!), I actually have an HTC First and not an HTC One.  When they first started selling my model of phone last year they marketed it as "the facebook phone."  Yeah, well, I disabled the Facebook Home wallpaper thing as soon as I could.  It was annoying, to be entirely honest.  And facebook is something I do ON my phone, not what my phone is FOR.  

Anyway, I thought that my phone was pretty much the same as the HTC One, but it apparently isn't.  A number of the hints that are suggested just plain ol' don't work.  Apparently this is because the HTC First without Facebook Home is pretty much like a stripped down, "vanilla" Android phone with Jellybean 4.1.  Lots of the cool HTC One features just don't exist and my trying to find them was a waste of time.  In addition, almost all the online tips and tricks sites related directly to the HTC First are about the Facebook Home interface and/or how to get rid of it.  None of that is useful, but in the process of trying to finagle the One tricks into working, I managed to find all kinds of other stuff out about my phone, all on my own.

Once I gave up on anything related to HTC One or HTC First and focused on the Jellybean-ness of my phone, I had much better luck finding tips that were actually of some utility.  I found a lot of things that will work on my Jellybean phone...as well as some that are specific to various device-types that I don't have, like facial recognition locking.  (And yes, I'm going to refer to it as my Jellybean Phone from now on.  Way better than HTC First-the Facebook Phone.)   

I feel good that I had figured out a lot of the real security things on my own a long time ago, but I did discover some good hints that will help make my life better.  Among the things I did were:

• Found that I actually do have photo filters and other photo editing options on my phone, directly in my photo gallery!  Unlike the HTC One, with applies the filter as you are taking the photo, my First/Jellybean lets you pick filters afterward.  I like this much better.
• Reactivated Google Now: Apparently when I got rid of Facebook Home, I also deactivated Google Now.  I've been wondering why everyone else can just talk to their phones and get them to do/tell them things.  Now I can do voice-to-text-message easily, which is cool.  Also voice-activated directions via my GPS, which I will use a lot.  
• I already had a screen lock in place for security purposes, but now I have owner info on the lock screen.  So if I lose my phone and it is found by a responsible, kind person, they can call another of my numbers to report it as lost to me and my family.  
• I can easily take a screen shot (yeah, couldn't do that before).
• Found an adorable Easter Egg of floating jellybeans.  

Ok, that last one wasn't really a tip or anything with utility, but it was cute. The little andriod jellybeans are just so silly looking!

On to #3